President Netumbo Nandi-Ndaitwah has called for closer collaboration with Huawei to accelerate Namibia’s digital transformation, with artificial intelligence (AI), smart city technology, cloud infrastructure, digital skills development and a national data centre emerging as key priorities.
The discussions took place during the President’s visit to Huawei’s Headquarters Exhibition Centre in Shenzhen, China, where she met the company’s executives to explore how technology can support Namibia’s digital ambitions under the Sixth National Development Plan (NDP6) and Vision 2030.
A key outcome of the meeting was China’s commitment of a 98 million yuan (about N$245 million) grant to support Namibia’s Smart City pilot project, which forms part of a broader effort to modernise public services through digital technologies.
The partnership builds on Huawei’s ongoing collaboration with the Ministry of Home Affairs, Immigration, Safety and Security and the Ministry of Information and Communication Technology to develop smart city solutions and establish an AI-ready National Data Centre.
“Namibia recognises that digital transformation is no longer just a symbol of technology, but a strategic imperative for economic growth, industrialisation, good governance and sustainable development,” Nandi-Ndaitwah said.
The President said Namibia wants artificial intelligence to become a driver of economic growth while creating employment opportunities through skills development rather than replacing workers.
She said more than 2,000 Namibians have already benefited from Huawei’s digital training programmes and called for expanded collaboration to prepare the country’s workforce for AI-enabled industries.
“We are really looking forward to working with you in creating those new jobs. Because in a country like Namibia, where unemployment is high, if you take those who can be employed and put them back on the street, that is going to be very dangerous,” she said.
Beyond deploying digital infrastructure, the President stressed the importance of ensuring Namibia develops the technical expertise needed to operate and maintain new systems independently.
“Sometimes we spend money on the systems. The systems are put up, but they don’t work, yet a lot of money has been spent. We want to be very careful to avoid such a situation whereby we spend money and it does not have an impact,” she said.
Huawei Senior Vice President for Enterprise Sales Leo Chen said the company sees locally managed digital infrastructure as fundamental to Namibia’s digital future, particularly the establishment of a national data centre that strengthens data sovereignty.
“We believe that the future lies in Namibia having its very own national data centre. We look at what the country has in demand, be it AI, security or data centres. We then train them in that specific field and they are put into actual practice in the real world,” Chen said.
He said Huawei’s ICT Academy continues to equip Namibians with internationally recognised certifications in artificial intelligence, cybersecurity and data infrastructure before placing graduates in practical working environments.
Chen added that Huawei will continue investing in cloud computing, artificial intelligence and digital infrastructure to support Namibia’s public sector digitalisation agenda while helping build a locally skilled digital workforce capable of sustaining the country’s technology ecosystem.
